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North Dakota’s Bakken and South Texas’s Eagle Ford shale formations were responsible for 75% of oil production growth over the past month, and West Texas’s Permian remains the largest oil producer, according to a report released Tuesday.

EIA

In natural gas, the Marcellus formation, which straddles Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York, remains king: it accounted for 75% of the fuel’s production growth, the Energy Information Administration said.

Increases in drilling efficiency and new-well productivity, rather than an increase in active rigs, have been the main driver of growth, the EIA added.

The drilling productivity report released Tuesday was the first of its kind. The EIA aims to keep closer tabs on oil and natural-gas production from shale formations and other “tight oil” sources with the monthly report.

Voser, who will be replaced next year, also said Shell’s failed Alaskan Arctic exploration, marred by technical and regulatory problems, is one of his biggest disappointments on the job, the FT said in a story published Sunday.

Shell
/quotes/zigman/379078/quotes/nls/rds.aRDSA still doesn’t know if it will return to the Arctic next year or in 2015, he said. The company spent $5 billion in the Arctic without being able to complete any wells.

U.S.-listed shares of Shell declined 1% on Monday, roughly in line with most energy companies on the S&P 500 Index.

Shell shares have underperformed year-to-date, however, down 6% compared with gains around 15% for the energy firms on the S&P.

Tapping shale rock for oil and gas fueled the comeback, while Russia has struggled to maintain its output and has yet gone for technologies such as hydraulic fracturing that have been key for the U.S. boost in production, the newspaper said.

The production boom is reshaping oil markets and eroding the political clout of traditional petroleum-rich countries, the WSJ said.

U.S. imports of natural gas and oil have fallen 32% and 15%, respectively. Because the U.S. is such a huge consumer of energy, its shift to producing has left more oil and gas available to other buyers.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is seeking buyers for its stakes in South Texas’s Eagle Ford shale after the $2 billion write-down in North American assets the company announced last month, this story on The Wall Street Journal said.

Bloomberg

Shell
/quotes/zigman/379078/quotes/nls/rds.aRDSA would sell 160,000 acres in the area. The Anglo-Dutch company told the newspaper the acreage didn’t meet company targets for size and profits, and would offer a better opportunity for another operator.

Shell would continue to operate its 150 wells in the region while potential buyers review technical data on the holdings, The Wall Street Journal said. A possible value of the assets was not disclosed.

Shares of oil and gas exploration and production companies in the West Texas Permian Basin have handily outpaced their peers with operations elsewhere, and analysts at Simmons & Co. are betting that outperformance will continue.

“We continue to advocate investor focus on the Permian as we believe we are in the early innings of a significant increase in resource potential,” they said.

Cuadrilla Resources said Monday it found hydrocarbons in an exploratory well in southern England that has drawn large anti-fracking protests.

AFP/Getty Images

At the height of the protests in August, more than 1,000 activists had camped close to the site, near the village of Balcombe in West Sussex, fearing the test drilling would lead to hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, at the well.

“Along with the operational drilling success achieved at Balcombe the well also confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons,” Cuadrilla said. The well “was a success and we are very encouraged by the findings so far,” said Andrew Quarles, Cuadrilla’s Exploration Director.

Further tests will be required to determine the site’s potential, Cuadrilla said. The well is closed off as Cuadrilla files for permission to come back and test flow rates, the company added.

South Texas’s Eagle Ford shale may get all the attention, but West Texas’s Permian basin is giving it a run for its money.

Between January and June, Permian basin oil production has surpassed Eagle Ford’s — 889,808 barrels a day versus 598,706 barrels a day in the South Texas formation, this story in the Houston Business Journal said, citing numbers from the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s energy sector.

Permian is likely to reach 2 million barrels a day within five years, eventually filling the gap as production from North Dakota’s Bakken shale moderates.

Many of us take a road trip with the kids each summer, but only the most dedicated oil analyst takes a road trip with the kids to tour the oil and gas-shale basins in the Upper Plains and the Rockies.

AFP/Getty Images

A father/son summertime roadtrip for John Daniel, at Simmons & Co., was just the thing. The duo visited Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg basin, Montana and Wyoming’s Powder River basin, and North Dakota’s Bakken.

And, 1,600 miles later, he said the mood in the oil patch is of guarded optimism, he said. No one mentioned they expected near-term activity to fall, but the rig count in those areas was seen as flat, Daniel said.

The “most encouraging” comments came from exploration and production contacts who told Daniel the size of the oil pads will continue to grow.

Shale oil and gas are “abundant” around the globe, and the world has 10% more shale gas resources than the Energy Information Administration estimated just two years ago.

The new report, released Monday, took advantage of new geological research and well drilling results to paint a more complete picture of shale oil and gas outside the U.S. and Canada, the two only two countries that have been able to produce commercial quantities of both.

The new report also focused on oil as well as shale gas, and broadened its research to 95 basins in 41 countries from 48 basins in 32 countries in the 2011 report, the EIA said. The study was conducted by Advanced Resources International under contract to the EIA.

Of those, Russia sits on the most “technically recoverable” shale oil resources — 75 billion barrels. The U.S. comes in second, with 58 billion. China, Argentina, and Libya round out the top five, the EIA said.

China has the most in technically recoverable shale gas, with 1.1 quadrillion cubic feet. Argentina, with 802 trillion cubic feet, is No. 2. The U.S. is fourth, with 665 tcf, just below Algeria, with 707 tcf. Canada is No. 5, with 573 tcf.

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